William



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

WILLIAM o. BAKER, on NEW YORK, N. Y.

USE OF .HYDROCARBON LIQUIDS FOR TRANSMITTING HEAT.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 58,755, dated October 16, 1866.

To all whom it may concern.- Be it known that I, WILLIAM G. BAKER, o the city, county,'and State of New York, have invented or discovered a certain new and useful Improvement in Transmitting and Diffusin g Heat in railroad-cars and other-public conveyances and buildings; and I do hereby declare and describe my said improvement as follows:

I have found great economy and efficiency in heating apartments of private and public buildings by heating-surfaces through which I caused water and steam to circulate, and I haveLet-ters Patent'on certain apparatus which I have successfully used for that purpose; but I find that in railroad-cars and the like, where heating or radiating surfaces are subjected to extreme cold, the water is liable to freeze, and thus impede the action of the apparatus or destroy it. To obviate this objection, I have found by actual experiments that hydrocarbon liquids are the proper substitutes for waterin the heating-surfaces. They should be freed from-glutinous properties, which may lodge in the pipes,boilers, or heating-surfaces through which they circulate, and be of such gravity or other necessary condition as not to congeal at very low temperatures, or be liable to explosion and they should also be rendered as uninfiammable as possible to guard against accidents in their use. My experiments have been made chiefly with kerosene-oil, as it is a cheap and convenient fluid; but it will be obvious that any other suitable oils properly prepared maybe substitutedtherefor, and will be the equivalent thereof to produce the same effect.

I am aware that Messrs. Hargrave and Kin g have recently patented the use of mercury for similar purposes, and I disclaim this as an impracticable agent for" the accomplishment of my desired object. 1 am also aware that quicksilver and oils have been employed as the agents for distilling, evaporating, and for various chemical purposes. I am also aware that Thomas Fowler, of Farrington, England, in the year 1828, makes mention of oils and other liquids as practicable to be used in an apparatus in which he circulated hot water for heating baths, greenhouses, &c.; but I am not aware that hydrocarbon liquids or their equivalents have ever been employed for the purposes I propose.

()ther oils and chemical fluids act to the injury of the pipes or vessels in which they are held, and require more expensive and intricate mechanical contrivances to contain them, and are dangerous. I do not purpose using them as heating mediums.

Having thus clearly described my new application, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

The employment of hydrocarbon liquids to circulate in heating'surfaces, as and for the purposes set forth.

IVM. G. BAKER.

WVitnesses J. W. LANE, GEO. PEYTON. 

